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April Fools’ Day 2015: Our Giant Roundup of the Best Brand Hoaxes

April Fools' Day is one of my favorite advertising holidays. It's a magical day when brands manage to be smart, relevant and amusing on their smallest budgets of the year. It's a lesson we could all learn, year round.

With a few exceptions like Google (including YouTube), Virgin and ThinkGeek, which have practically built the day into their business model, most brands are tossing a pittance of their marketing budget toward a daylong prank, just for the fool of it. And there's something beautifully foolish in that, don't you think?

See this year's roundup below. We'll be updating this story throughout the day. Yee-haw!

*UPDATED 12:35 p.m. ET

AOL

Audi

The automaker has invented the Autonomous Office Chair, a seemingly Wall-E inspired chair—equipped with the latest piloted driving technology from Audi—that knows everything you need to do before you do.

18

Hulu

The video site has introduced Hulu Pets. Like most of the other pet pranks on this list, it's the same service, just for pets.

19

Lowe Profero

This ad agency invented the Creativity Helmet, a tool that "could take the subjectivity out of creativity." The Creativity Helmet will be able to measure whether an idea follows a flurry of brain activity—and objectively judge whether it is a good idea worth following up.

Amazon

Analog Watch Co.

The watch maker is hawking an awesome Ant Watch. This will undoubtedly not be the last shot fired at the Apple Watch today, but it happens to be one that fooled TechCrunch. And there's even a Change.org petition against this cruel, nonexistent watch.

32

Betabrand

The clothing company has replaced all its model photos with derp shots due to its timely acquisition by Derp.com.

33

BMW

The automaker's U.K. division has been partaking in pranking since 2000. This year, they've designed a special rugby mouthguard called the Motor Mouth for famous rugby athlete Chris Robshaw. All that great BMW protection, bite-sized.

34

Caribou Coffee

The brand has discovered a new kind of coffee called Workday Roast, which stays warm for eight hours straight through chemical heating. Even better, it comes with a ludicrously detailed backstory.

35

Colle+McVoy

The Minneapolis agency created a fake awards program called The Tenties, finally celebrating all the forgotten advertising tent cards and elevating those who like to do it on the table.

36

Cramer

This Boston-based marketing studio has created the Pawculus Rift—the first VR experience for dogs.

37

Curry for Change

This charity has gotten popular Indian cook and blogger Hari Ghotra to create a Kickstarter for a $10,000 curry made with black truffles and a host of other hideously expensive ingredients. If you fall for it and donate, your dollars will go to Curry for Change.

38

Dominos

The pizza chain has created the Domi-NO-Driver, a driverless pizza delivery robot, which is also not terribly far from the future.

39

Duluth Trading

How about some magnetic workpants made with crushed Samarium Cobalt magnets, so you can stick your tools anywhere? Even snugly next to your tool.

40

Ely, Minnesota

The town of Ely, Minn., a small town with a big heart for April Fools' Day, did drones best this year. It's banning drones with a Keep Ely Drone Free campaign that includes three Christopher Guest-esque films about two drone hunters, a nosy drone-owning neighbor and a drone-banning sunbather.

41

Esurance

The company is now selling "Presurance"—insurance that can predict your next fender bender and alert you up to seven days before it happens. By Leo Burnett Chicago.

42

Fifth Ring

This agency created the first sub-sea office in the history of advertising.

FloridaTix

Fresh Direct

A 5-Day Cheese Cleanse. Which is just … ew. They promise after you finish you'll feel "not great, like you ate a tub of cheese."

45

Google

Every year, Google and its various subbrands create enough April Fools' content to justify their own section. Here's this year's Google-splosion.

• Go to com.google to see the entire Google website reversed. • Google Maps is allowing you to play Pac-Man literally on the maps. And here’s a guide to the best places to chomp those cherries. Google Maps is also warning that Australia will actually be in the Northern Hemisphere by 2055. • Google's AR game Ingress has also gone Pac-Man. • Google Japan has introduced the Party Horn keyboard, which lets you key in letters by measuring how hard you blow. They've also announced Google Panda, a search capable Teddy Ruxpin-like stuffed Panda. • Google Chrome has a new extension that lets you take a reaction selfie for whatever content you're viewing. • Gmail has created the Smartbox by Inbox by Gmail by Google, the smart new mailbox of tomorrow. • Google Fiber now has dial-up mode for all of us who missed that wait time and the soothing sounds of a 56k modem.

46

Groupon

Groupon U.K. is offering an online course developed by the Pet Auditory Welfare Service (PAWS) to learn dog barking as a language. And Groupon U.S. has created GroUber, a service where you can get a ride in a car driven by a cat.

47

Honda

The automaker is introducing the 2016 HR-V SLF Selfie Edition, featuring hands-free selfie technology with 10 different selfie cams throughout the vehicle.

48

Jetsetter.com

This booking service created the world's first virtual-reality hotel. Why simply staycation when you can have an entirely virtual vacation?

49

Jimmy John’s

The sandwich chain has improved on its freaky fast delivery with new sammich delivery drones.

50

Kars4Kids

This nonprofit is letting you auto-donate the cars of rude drivers with the Beep Off app. It hopes to educate people about the correct response to road rage.

51

Lowe’s

The home-improvement store released a ridiculous infomercial for a glow-in-the-dark hat for cats. It's not much of a prank because they're actually offering it to the first 2,250 people who actually want a glow-in-the-dark cat hat. They even made a real TV spot that goes with their current confidence campaign. Work by BBDO.

52

Lyst

The shopping page has been taken over by memes today, so you can shop meme-inspired fashion. Want that coat the Ikea monkey wears? They've got it.

53

Mack Weldon

The menswear brand is offering the world's first downloadable underwear in a video set to the most popular advertising track of all time: Grieg's "Dance in the Hall of the Mountain King."

54

Microsoft

NitFlux

A new streaming service offered by a few pissed-off New Zealanders who are irritated that NetFlix is coming to Australia first (like everything else). While it's more of a jab at a brand than an actual brand communication, it's pretty dang funny.

56

Petco

The pet-supply store is offering bark- and meow-activated selfie sticks for pets. Check out the page and the video, which includes dogs and cats running around with selfie sticks attached to adorable vests.

57

PlayStation

The new PlayStation Flow is a pair of goggles and series of sensors that let you explore in-game water environments by actually swimming in a real pool. And it is actually not a horrible idea.

58

RedBox

RedBox has created PetBox, a RedBox for all your pets' entertainment needs.

59

Reddi-wip

Rug Doctor

Got dirty carpets and a dirty mind? Rug Doctor can take care of one of those things. They're recommending you do it at least once a year, doctor's orders. And for April Fools' Day, they're switching out all their banner ads to ask if you want to watch a couple do it.